Mike Paparo sings in Inter Arma, a band from Richmond, VA whose new album for Relapse, Sky Burial, has been getting strong notices from the critics and has appeared on best of the year lists. Inter Arma’s sound in part mixes doom and black metal, and part of their signature sound comes in no small part from Paparo’s vocal style.
In the below audio, I speak to Inter Arma about touring for Sky Burial:
Transcription
We caught up with Mike after the band played in Washington, D.C., on a tour with Russian Circles and KEN Mode. We began with asking if our crazy East Coast winter weather has affected the tour.
Paparo: “[laughs] Yeah, it was in Iowa. Man, it was, like, negative eight degrees. There was snow everywhere. Our van heater went out. That was fun. Our feet were freezing. I remember one night, Trey, our guitar player, and I were afraid to take our shoes off ‘cause we hadn’t had feeling in our feet for so long. We were just like, man, I don’t want to look at ‘em. It was awful.”
There weren’t any local bands opening the D.C. date of the tour.
Paparo: “There was two in Florida and that’s it. That’s the only opening bands we’ve had the entire tour. And I guess it’s—they did the whole thing, the stupid pay-to-play thing. I hate that.”
After finishing the current U.S. tour, Inter Arma is taking a short break and then going to Europe with Indian and Windhand, followed by an East Coast and Canadian tour with Ulcerate.
Paparo: “It’ll be our first time going to Canada, so I’m pretty stoked on that.”
Inter Arma has a few highlights from this tour, one being Austin.
Paparo: “Austin was pretty cool. There were tons of people. All the shows we played have been pretty packed and this is the first time we’ve really ever done a tour where people are watching us. Like, it’s not just 20 people who are kind of milling around getting drunk or something. People are actually watching us every night. Like, we play at 8 and the room is still pretty packed out. It’s weird. It’s the first time it’s ever happened to us. We’re used to doing tours and half the shows are 10 people who don’t give a fuck, just drunk and arguing with you about the price of a pin or something, you know? You know how it is.”
D.U.: “Well, you got past that stage, so congratulations. You’ve graduated to the next tier. [laughs]”
Paparo: “[laughs] I guess we’re going somewhere. I dunno. Yeah. Like, every night, even Iowa City where we’ve—the last time we played Iowa City it was to a huge room with eight people. Well, this time we played there and there’s, like, eight inches of snow on the ground still falling and the room is still packed out. Just, wow, this is crazy. The tour’s been awesome.”
Nanci Bompey contributed to this interview.
